Pascal Programming Lesson #4 - String Handling and Conversions

String Handling

You can access a specific character in a string if you put the number of the position of that character in square brackets behind a string.




program Strings;

var
   s: String;
   c: Char;

begin
   s := 'Hello';
   c := s[1];{c = 'H'}
end.

You can get the length of a string using the Length command.




program Strings;

var
   s: String;
   l: Integer;

begin
   s := 'Hello';
   l := Length(s);{l = 5}
end.

To find the position of a string within a string use the Pos command.

Parameters:

1: String to find
2: String to look in




program Strings;

var
   s: String;
   p: Integer;

begin
   s := 'Hello world';
   p := Pos('world',s);
end.

The Delete command removes characters from a string.
Parameters:
1: String to delete characters from
2: Position to start deleting from
3: Amount of characters to delete




program Strings;

var
   s: String;

begin
   s := 'Hello';
   Delete(s,1,1);{s = 'ello'}
end.

The Copy command is like the square brackets but can access more than just one character.

Parameters:

1: String to copy characters from
2: Position to copy from
3: Amount of characters to copy




program Strings;

var
   s, t: String;

begin
   s := 'Hello';
   t := Copy(s,1,3);{t = 'Hel'}
end.

Insert will insert characters into a string at a certain position.
Parameters:
1: String that will be inserted into the other string
2: String that will have characters inserted into it
3: Position to insert characters




program Strings;

var
   s: String;

begin
   s := 'Hlo';
   Insert('el',s,2);
end.

The ParamStr command will give you the command-line parameters that were passed to a program.ParamCount will tell you how many parameters were passed to the program. Parameter 0 is always the program's name and from 1 upwards are the parameters that have been typed by the user.




program Strings;

var
   s: String;
   i: Integer;

begin
   s := ParamStr(0);
   i := ParamCount;
end.

Conversions

The Str command converts an integer to a string.




program Convert;

var
   s: String;
   i: Integer;

begin
   i := 123;
   Str(i,s);
end.

The Val command converts a string to an integer.




program Convert;

var
   s: String;
   i: Integer;
   e: Integer;

begin
   s := '123';
   Val(s,i,e);
end.

Int will give you the number before the comma in a real number.




program Convert;

var
   r: Real;

begin
   r := Int(3.14);
end.

Frac will give you the number after the comma in a real number.




program Convert;

var
   r: Real;

begin
   r := Frac(3.14);
end.

Round will round off a real number to the nearest integer.




program Convert;

var
   i: Integer;

begin
   i := Round(3.14);
end.

Trunc will give you the number before the comma of a real number as an integer.




program Convert;

var
   i: Integer;

begin
   i := Trunc(3.14);
end.

Computers use the numbers 0 to 255(1 byte) to represent characters internally and these are called ASCII characters. The Ord command will convert a character to number and the Chr command will convert a number to a character. Using a # in front of a number will also convert it to a character.




program Convert;

var
   b: Byte;
   c: Char;

begin
   c := 'a';
   b := Ord(c);
   c := Chr(b);
   c := #123;
end.

The UpCase command changes a character from a lowercase letter to and uppercase letter.




program Convert;

var
   c: Char;

begin
   c := 'a';
   c := UpCase(c);
end.

There is no lowercase command but you can do it by adding 32 to the ordinal value of an uppercase letter and then changing it back to a character.

Extras

The Random command will give you a random number from 0 to the number you give it - 1. The Randomcommand generates the same random numbers every time you run a program so the Randomize command is used to make them more random by using the system clock.




program Rand;

var
   i: Integer;

begin
   Randomize;
   i := Random(101);
end.